India’s spinners were on top when Murali Kartik removed Brad Hodge to make it 129-4, but Symonds cut loose as he shared 75 with Brad Haddin and 90 with James Hopes (39).

Symonds was dropped by Santh aiming to sweep Harbhajan when on two but other than that he was was merciless on the Indians – one straight six off slow left-armer Kartik nearly cleared the ground.

He reached his sixth ODI century as 102 runs came in the final 10 overs but India’s experienced opening duo replied in kind.

Ganguly, who was once again strong in his favoured region square on the off-side, flayed two boundaries off Mitchell Johnson in the second over and Tendulkar crashed three successive fours off Brett Lee.

Tendulkar and Ganguly both reached their half centuries by swinging sixes off Hogg but the former was stumped off James Hopes when he lost balance trying to flick a leg-side delivery.

Irfan Pathan continued the assault by hammering Bracken down the ground and heaving Symonds for maximums in his run-a-ball 29, before cutting Hogg to point.

And Hogg put his side in charge by having Ganguly snapped up at wide long-off, trapping Yuvraj Singh lbw with a low full-toss and seeing Rahul Dravid hole out to long-on.

The game and series looked up for the hosts but Uthappa and Mahendra Dhoni (26) launched a ferocious assault, smashing the ball to all parts to leave Ponting scratching his head.

Dhoni dispatched Lee over long-off for six, while Uthappa deposited Clarke over exta-cover and Bracken down the ground for maximums as 50 runs were garnered in only four overs.

Lee inexplicably dropped a sitter when Uthappa flipped Johnson to fine-leg but Hopes and Ponting held on to steeplers during a double-wicket maiden from Johnson to end any doubt about the outcome.

India were grappling on Saturday for a strategy to rein in hard-hitters Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds who have underlined Australia’s dominance in the one-day series so far.

Australia roared back with a vengeance after their only defeat in the seven-match series in Chandigarh last week to thrash the hosts by nine wickets in the fifth match at Vadodara on Wednesday for a 3-1 lead.

Hayden, who seems to thrive in the sub-continent, and Symonds in the middle order have had major bearings on the results with their array of aggressive strokeplay.

Whatever has been dished out by the bowlers, including spinners, has been dispatched to the fence with alarming regularity by the duo.

While Hayden has accumulated a staggering 290 runs from five innings with a run-a-ball 92 at Chandigarh as his highest, Symonds has 258 from four outings.

India, who must win the remaining two matches of the series on Sunday and in Mumbai on Wednesday if they are to draw level, know the Hayden-Symonds combination is their biggest threat.

The Indians have tinkered with the bowling attack to get the desired results by dropping mercurial fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and off-spinner Ramesh Powar, but to no avail.

Sreesanth, who hit the headlines for his run-ins with the Australian players, including Symonds, has not done much on the field to help his team’s cause.

Although he took eight wickets in the first three games, he also gave away 180 runs, prompting the Indian team management to replace him with left-arm paceman Rudra Pratap Singh.

Sreesanth clashed repeatedly with the batsmen during the second one-day international in Kochi and even appealed for a run-out against Symonds after the ball was ruled dead, incurring the wrath of local media.

Powar was dropped for left-arm spinner Murali Kartik who has been able to contain the run flow to some extent without taking wickets.